It was created on 17 July 2007 from the (larger) central and southern part of what was at that time the Pontianak Regency.

[1] The principal town lies at Sungai Raya, directly adjacent to the City of Pontianak.

Despite its close location to Pontianak, the regional capital and economic centre of the West Kalimantan Province, Kubu Raya highly lacks sufficient infrastructure development, which has caused general suspicions regarding the performance of its local government.

[1] The table includes the locations of the district administrative centres, the number of administrative villages in each district (all classed as rural desa), and its post code.

Notes: (a) including the town (then classed as a kelurahan) of Sungai Raya, which had 62,010 inhabitants at the 2010 Census; by the 2020 Census this town had been split into several desa within the district, among which the desa of Sungai Raya had 16,101 inhabitants in mid 2021, Sungai Raya Dalam had 22,652, Kapur had 14,861, Parit Baru had 32,028, Arang Limbung had 26,783.